Hyginus, known as the Astronomer or the Mythographer to distinguish him from others of the same name, was a Roman writer. His identity is however uncertain: for a long time scholars identified him with Gaius Julius Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus and director of the Palatine Library; today, however, there is a tendency to distinguish the two figures and to place the mythographer in the Imperial age, around the 2nd century AD.
We possess no certain information about his life. He is, however, known for his attention to Greek sources, thanks to which he helped preserve the contents of works, especially tragedies, that are now lost.
An astronomical treatise entitled De astronomia is attributed to him, in which notions concerning the Earth and the zodiac are collected, together with myths relating to the sky and the constellations, as well as the movement of the stars.
However, his fame is above all linked to the Fabulae, a collection of brief mythical tales of Greek tradition, dating to the 2nd century BC and probably conceived for didactic purposes, similar to those of a modern school handbook.
The work comprises a total of 277 sections (not all of which have survived), thus constituting a true compendium of mythology.
In section 199 of the Fabulae, Hyginus preserves one of the principal myths connected with the city of Scilla and its foundation: the story of the troubled love between Glaucus and Scylla.
The tale is presented in an extremely concise and typically mythographical form: the author focuses on the essential turning points of the myth — the transformation of Glaucus, Scylla’s rejection and the punishment inflicted by Circe — reducing narrative elaboration to a minimum and privileging the causal sequence of events.
In this way, Hyginus transmits a compact version of the tradition, functional to the preservation of the myth and to the explanation of the origin of Scylla’s metamorphosis.
“They say that Scylla, daughter of the river Crataeis, was a most beautiful maiden. Glaucus fell in love with her, and he in turn was loved by Circe, daughter of the Sun. Scylla had the habit of bathing in the sea; and Circe, out of jealousy, poisoned the water with her potions. When Scylla immersed herself, dogs sprang forth from her groin and she became a savage monster. She then took revenge for the wrongs she had suffered: indeed, she devoured the companions of Ulysses as he sailed past her on his ship.”
Greek mythology is rich in stories of troubled love, unrequited passions, furious jealousy and revenge. Scilla, in particular, has been a privileged setting and backdrop for these tales, which have become an integral part of the cultural and folkloric heritage of humanity.
Among these stories connected with the town is also the one that identifies Scylla, daughter of the god Phorcys and the goddess Crataeis, as a nymph of extraordinary beauty, destined to be transformed into a terrible sea monster because of a revenge born of love. The tale indeed tells of Glaucus’ obsessive love for the nymph and of Circe’s furious jealousy, which condemned poor Scylla to an eternity as a monster, relegated to a cave at the base of the rock that still bears her name today, situated at the northern entrance to the Strait of Messina. It is said that one day, near the Strait of Messina, Glaucus, a handsome fisherman, returning from an abundant catch, spread his nets upon a meadow to dry in the sun. Suddenly he noticed that the fish, at first trapped in the nets, began to move again and throw themselves back into the sea. Struck by a revelation, he realized that the cause of such a phenomenon was a strange herb growing there. Curious to discover its magical properties, he ate a few blades of the grass, and at that moment his appearance began to change, taking on the form of a sea god with a long fish tail and a beard with green reflections.
The newly transformed god Glaucus soon encountered a nymph of extraordinary beauty, Scylla, who was accustomed to bathing in the waters of a nearby sandy shore, and he immediately fell madly in love with her. Scylla listened willingly to Glaucus’ love verses, but chose to reject the courtship of the sea god, frightened by his strange appearance. Glaucus, mad with passion, therefore decided to seek the help of the sorceress Circe. The sea god wished the enchantress to prepare for him a potion that would make Scylla fall in love with him, but Circe was far from willing to satisfy his request, for she herself was consumed by an intense passion for him. She therefore offered herself to Glaucus, who rejected her in the name of the love he felt for Scylla. Blinded by rage, Circe then carried out a cruel revenge upon her rival in love and transformed the beautiful nymph Scylla into a hideous sea monster. She contaminated with a magical potion the waters of the cove where Scylla used to bathe and, at the very moment the maiden’s body was touched by the water, it began to change. She saw monstrous dog heads sprouting around her, furious and snarling. Terrified, she tried to drive them away but realized that those muzzles were attached to her belly by means of six serpent-like necks, at the ends of which were six fierce barking dog heads, each with three rows of sharp teeth. Looking at her reflection in the water, Scylla observed with despair her new appearance: from the waist upward she remained the beautiful nymph she had always been, but the rest of her body had become a monster. Overwhelmed by despair, Scylla took refuge in a deep cave at the foot of a high rock not far from the places where she used to bathe, directly opposite the whirlpool of Charybdis. Her terrible hatred for Circe boiled within her soul and revenge was not long in coming
Scylla’s fury descended upon the ship of Ulysses, the only one who had dared to cross that stretch of sea. The Homeric hero survived, but lost six of his companions.
Giuseppe Ribuffo
